PCMark Vantage is the first objective hardware performance benchmark for PCs running 32 and 64 bit versions of Microsoft Windows Vista. PCMark Vantage is perfectly suited for benchmarking any type of Microsoft Windows Vista PC from multimedia home entertainment systems and laptops to dedicated workstations and high-end gaming rigs. Regardless of whether the benchmarker is an artist or an IT Professional, PCMark Vantage shows the user where their system soars or falls flat, and how to get the most performance possible out of their hardware. PCMark Vantage is easy enough for even the most casual enthusiast to use yet supports in-depth, professional industry grade testing.

FutureMark has developed a good set of hard disk tests for their PCMark Vantage Suite. Windows users can count on Vantage to show them how a drive will perform in normal day to day usage scenarios. For most users these are the tests that matter since many of the old hat ways to measure performance have become ineffective to measure true Windows performance.

Just as I was thinking, making use of very high queue depth increases in typical Windows 7 day-to-day tasks is going to be difficult unless you are seriously multitasking. Here we see that the brute force approach of higher sequential reads helps propel the 240GB Vertex 2 past the Vertex LE in all but one test. Still, the numbers are very close and I don't think the difference will be noticeable in a double blind test between two identical computers back-to-back, much less for a user who only has one Vertex or the other.

My choice in just sampling the 240GB Vertex LE is coming back to haunt me here a bit. The Vertex 2 120GB drive appears to be the king of desktop speed and seeing the Vertex LE 120GB would have been beneficial for those looking to purchase the first SandForce 100 / 120GB drive to ever break the 300 USD price barrier. I can only assume that the 120GB LE is going to run just a hair slower than the Vertex 2 120GB drive but still perform very fast. If the reduction is on par with what we saw in the 240GB drives users will not notice a significant decrease in user experience.